Won’t feel a thing

Abortion has often been defined as a ‘necessary evil’, and for those in the immense grey zone of attitudes towards abortion, this powerful phrase tends to push them towards acceptance of the procedure. It allows one to support abortion, while still retaining a recognition that it is not ideal, a sort of moral give and take that softens the callousness of being pro-abortion. But those who are adamantly and unapologetically pro-abotion desire a procedure that is quick, painless (both emotionally and physically for the women), and accessible with as little emotivism as possible, rendering the term ‘necessary evil’ itself unnecessary.

Teenagers who have abortions do not appear to be at increased risk for depression or low self-esteem, according to the first nationally representative study to examine the issue.

Jocelyn T. Warren of Oregon State University and her colleagues analyzed data collected from 289 teenage girls who reported having at least one pregnancy when interviewed as part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health between 1994 and 1996. Sixty-nine reported having had an abortion. They were also interviewed again five years later. The analysis found no association between having had an abortion and depression or low self-esteem within either a year of the pregnancy or five years later, the researchers report in apaper being published in the journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health.

In their minds, they must see this as an achievement. Women will be less likely to require counselling as part of the abortion process (which will speed up things in the waiting room), and women will feel (similarly to postpartum depression) an ever increasing pressure not to ‘feel bad’. So while some women are suppressing their thoughts and emotions, others still will feel nothing, and the effect of these states of mind are not only possibly detrimental to the individual, but to the society as a whole.

Remember, these teenagers will one day be deciding what to do with all of us when we’re seniors.

Comments

Let’s see what the “teenagers” think and feel when they are in their thirties and forties. A friend of mine had an abortion at 16, and she remains pro-abortion. Years after the abortion, she and I visited a fortune teller (that’s what we did back in the day). My friend told me that the fortune teller knew that she had had an abortion, but it was a good thing because the child would have been born with spinal bifida.

It seemed to me that this piece of information was the most important thing she took away from that evening, contrary to her vociferous and often vocal defense of abortion “rights.”